Inkwells and Lotus Blossoms: Tales from Pandaria
by Zarabethe
Summary: Set seven years after the end of Outcast, Kalibose and Mae take their first pilgrimage to Pandaria.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Notes: This was fully intended at first, to be this little one-shot. Therefore when I came to the end of it and realized just how out of hand it had gotten, the chapters are kinds of short and sparse. It is similar to In the Shadows of the Temple, although I can promise you, only happy endings here. I realized as I was writing Outcast that although Kalibose and Mae were close there, that was not the time that they would fall in love. This is that time.**

 **Inkwells will be updated Sunday evenings along with a chapter illustration on my deviantArt (username zarabethedraws)**

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 _Seven Years after the End of Outcast_

Unlike their friendship, the process by which Kalibose stopped referring to Mae as his "friend", and then his "best friend", and started calling her his "girlfriend", was so slow that he barely even noticed when it changed. It wasn't even that he thought of her any different; they had just both stopped correcting people when they assumed the two of them were together. It was easier that way. Of course when Mae had kissed him for real the first time, hard and fast and exuberant, he felt a lot more confident thinking of her as with him, and not only close happenstance. They just spent so much time together that the boundaries and the labels all blended into something unimportant. When you shared room, and space, and often crawled into bed with each other when the night was too cold, and sat around without shoes or proper attire the next morning and talked until they laughed themselves stupid and tried to shove each other off the bed, the difference between "friend" and "girlfriend" was inconsequential. Everything was so happy and innocent and sometimes irritating and tense, that the occasional kiss or hug that went on a little longer than it should have was just a small spark in the warming fire that surrounded them.

It was during their first trip to Pandaria however, that things started to change.

It had been a bit of an ordeal to arrange the trip at all. Mae had talked of making a pilgrimage to Tian Monastery ever since they left Ashenvale forest the first time, and although Kalibose had not the slightest interest in the southern continent or the pandaren culture, he wanted her to have that. Kalibose had to attain special paperwork from the King of Stormwind himself, verifying that he was indeed a legal resident of Elwynn Forest before he was able to purchase a ticket. He had worked on it in secret, as they both saved up their money, and when he had presented her with two viable passes to Pandaria for that spring, she had kissed him to take his breath away and he had to remember what his name even was still.

Even then, things had remained more or less the same between them. They scrimped and saved and made plans for his brother's family to check in on their apartment when they were gone. There was a six week monk training session in the middle of their two and a half month trip, and that would leave plenty of time for them to explore the Jade Forest and see all the sites. During her training course, Mae would be in the monastery all day, but they could have supper together and have the same room in the local inn. Kalibose planned to delve into some of the local magic lore and mogu history while there. It never even occurred to him to plan the trip just for her: between them, Mae was synonymous with Kalibose, and vice a versa.

The travel there was an adventure in itself. Mae had been like a school-aged child on the ship—so excited that she couldn't sit still. She followed the cabin boys around constantly until they finally taught her everything that she wanted to know about running the ship and how to sail it. If he ever needed to find her, he knew to look high up in the rigging first, then at the great wheel second, watching the helmsman steer and talking his ear off, most likely. Kalibose was not at all excited to be on the ship. He spent half of his time being ill over the side, and the other half sleeping. He was happier to get his feet on solid ground again than he was to see how the sun set red and gold against the sea or to watch the dolphins keep pace them them in the water.

After they landed however, and Kalibose spent some time sleeping off the seasickness that seemed to follow him ashore the first day, the continent was theirs. Alliance-Pandaren relations were at a high years after the war that devastated their capital, and they experienced little hostility as they took in the beauty that was Pandaria. Mae's enthusiasm was infectious: she drug him to every single shrine in the Jade Forest, and despite his initial culture shock, he was happy to be there. The architecture itself was amazing-he had not done much research on Pandaria before they left, so consumed as he was with finding a way to get there, so everything they encountered, from the food to the wild animals, was a new adventure. Under Mae's tutelage, he tasted things he would never have under normal circumstances: boiled squid, bamboo shoots sauteed in butter, egg drop soup, and foods that he couldn't hope to pronounce and had no idea what was in them.

The very best thing that he found, however, was just sitting back and watching Mae. Watching her inquire politely about the rules of the shrine they were visiting, then respecting them to the letter. Watching her pull a seat up to an ancient pandaren man sitting in the corner of a tavern and listen in rapt attention to every story he could spin. Watching her asking a group of pandaren children to teach her the game they were playing, then going at it with as much enthusiasm as they were. To see the beautiful bliss on her face with every new experience, he would follow her anywhere.

It was during the three weeks they had just to themselves, that it started. The very first day that they traveled, they ended up in a small shrine the entire afternoon. There had been little to say: it was so quiet and sacred that anything else was superfluous. It was only after they had bid the monks farewell and set off again, Kalibose leaning heavily on his staff and Mae skipping along backwards to watch the temple disappear behind them, that the silence had been broken. She paused in the middle of the path, grabbed his hands and pulled him further off the side until they were almost into the trees. He'd been lost in thought, tangled up in the quiet presence of the shrine in spite of himself, and it startled him.

"Mae? What-" and then she had thrown her arms around his neck and kissed him until he saw stars dance in front of his eyes. That particular occurrence had happened before (although it never failed to knock him breathless) but the _parting_ was different. Instead of hugging him, pulling away and skipping off, leaving him reeling, she paused, their mouths inches apart. She leaned her forehead against his, and even without her hands on the back of his head, he wouldn't have pulled away for anything.

"Thank you, Kal," she whispered, and he wasn't sure what exactly did it to him, the feel of her hot breath on his lips or the nickname that she never spoke in public, but instantly he felt like his skin was on fire. His hands were on her hips, and he slid them around her back to brush against her shoulder blades. It was nothing either of them had not done before: in fact there had been nights when he had nightmares or she had frightening visions, that they had held onto each other for dear life until dawn. But it was different this time: he was acutely aware of the heat of her skin beneath her shirt, her bare arms, the way her sharp fingernails lightly scratched the back of his neck. She seemed to fluster herself with how direct she was being: at this close of a distance, watching her open her mouth to speak, swallow, and then breathe out a giggle was absolutely captivating. Her cheeks were dusted dark pink and more than the kiss, this moment threw every thought out of his head. It took him a space to remember that she had said something. He had to clear his throat to speak, but he kept his voice quiet. He didn't want her to move yet.

"For what?"

"For...this." She only leaned back a few inches to gesture to the area around them, but he felt as if she were pulling miles away. "I have always dreamed of being here. Thank you for making this possible."

"Anything for you, Mae," he smiled, pulling her back to him. Right here, with her inches away...he needed this. It was only in hindsight that he realized how sappy his answer was, but he forgot it as he kissed her back. That was not at all how it usually went. He always let her make the first move: in fact, he didn't ever make a move at all. Either he was too nervous to do so, or it was so unexpected he didn't have time to react. This time however, he didn't hesitate as he pressed himself against her. He brought his hands up to cup her face gently, as if she were a delicate flower that he must protect. She made a noise of surprise, and he grimaced, preparing himself for her to pull away, but instead she pulled him down to kiss her more deeply. Without any intention to, he moaned quietly, ignoring the forest around them, the hazy sunlight filtering through the trees, and the group of noisy travelers that was approaching from the nearest town. He felt her stiffen in his arms, pull her hands back and it was only when she broke away and took a step that he realized some of them were whistling in their direction. He felt his face heat up even more than it already was, and he gave them a particularly ugly glare as they laughed, not unkindly, and continued on their way to the shrine. Mae's cheeks were still flushed, but she grabbed his hand and started back on the path. They did not speak of what had just happened between them, but she did not let go of his hand as they walked, either.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Notes: I'd like to keep this section up here clean for this story so if you'd like a comment reply, please log in! Also posting a day early because I have a busy weekend planned and I don't want to forget. Illustration up on dA.**

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Although they continued their whirlwind tour of Pandaria with just as much enthusiasm as before, there was definitely something brewing between them. Looks grew longer, touches were more frequent, and each kiss was like a door opening into a maelstrom. Kalibose thought to himself, as they playfully argued with each other over how to reach the apples at the top of a tree in the orchard outside of Dawn's Blossom, that all of those things had been there before. But suddenly, every brush of fingertips against his skin was like electricity.

Mae pushed him, which might have been comical considering their height difference, but she was stronger than she looked and he stumbled back a step.

"Come on, give me a boost up: I can't reach the bottom branch."

He grabbed her arms and made a show of struggling to lift her up dramatically, then dropping his arms in exhaustion. "I can't, you've eaten too many apples already. You're too heavy."

The look on her face was worth any sort of pummeling he might endure for the remark. "What! You carried me halfway across Ashenvale, you can lift me up once to reach that branch there."

She pointed to the nearest branch, which was further than what he could hope to reach. The comment though brought a rush of emotions to him: memories of her rasping breath, how hot her fever had ran, and how she had eventually lost consciousness. All of the humor left his face.

"You were dying, Mae."

She wasn't looking at him, and scoffed as she tried once again to jump up and grab the branch. "So I have to nick a vein to get a boost?"

When she thumped down the ground and turned to look at him, she must have seen the look on his face. She stopped her teasing and reached her hand out for him.

"I'm fine, Kalibose. You saved my life, and I'm just fine now."

He slid one hand up her arm, feeling the raised skin where she was permanently scarred from the harpy's claws. He swallowed hard. More than anything else he had ever done of questionable moral intent, it still bothered him on a profound level how close Mae had come to dying in Stonetalon. Perhaps it was because deep down, he blamed himself entirely for it.

"I'm sorry, Mae."

"Stop." She held one finger to his lips. "That was years ago. We are okay now. I am not going to risk my life to get some apples. Now come help me, I'm hungry."

She pulled him closer to the tree, and they argued about the best way to do it, and finally he turned with his back to the tree and looped his hands together. She stepped into them, and he made a very good effort, he thought, to hoist her up into the tree, but she only went up about halfway until they both lost their balance and they fell backward, her on top of him. He hit the ground hard, knocking the air out of his lungs, and she lay there and laughed as he struggled to breath and laugh at the same time, coughing out weird sounds that only made them laugh harder. Eventually she stopped and kissed him gently on the forehead, "Good try, Kalibose," before rolling off of him and getting to her feet. The pandaren man that offered them a ladder had a long-suffering look on his face, but they only had eyes for each other.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Notes: Originally this piece was intended on being a set of one-shots about Kalibose and Mae's first trip to Pandaria, which is why the first two chapters are somewhat disconnected. But about this time I got a little bit of a plotline going on, so this chapter is longer and the entire thing starts to get more coherent. The illustration up on dA is a sake set.**

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Dropping Mae off at Tian Monastery the first day was even harder than he thought it would be. They stood at the gates as other students passed by, made small talk, and even Mae seemed reluctant to turn away. She stared at her feet, biting her lip, and Kalibose wanted to grab her hand and take her back to the inn they were staying at and spend all day, well, not being alone, that's for sure. Eventually, after the morning bells had already started to ring, she straightened up and looked him in the eye.

"We are being silly. I'll meet you back in town for supper, alright?"

He swallowed and pulled her in for one last embrace. "Alright."

She did not skip off, but turned backward and waved to him, and slowly she left his sight. With a sigh, he turned and started back down the mountain path. He was using his staff as a walking stick today, and the purple crystal on top flared once, as if in sympathy. He spoke to it as he picked his way carefully down the steps.

"I know, K'vaat. I miss her too."

There was a large library at the foot of the mountain, recently uncovered, and full of mogu artifacts and scrolls. The pandaren woman bustling about trying to sort through and categorize everything was happy to have him, and he barely introduced himself before she handed him a stack of dusty tomes and returned to the pile she was working through. The work was captivating, and soon he was absorbed in the history of the southern continent.

"Hey, you, mage!"

Kalibose looked up in surprise. The woman hadn't spoken more than a handful of words to him since he arrived. He couldn't even remember her name. She beckoned an old paw at him, and with reluctance, he sat down the book on arcane traps he was reading. He shook dust off of his robes and stretched as he wove his way through the stacks of books they had already labeled. She was handing something to him, and when he opened his hand he was surprised to see a small stack of the local currency. He opened his mouth to question it, but she patted him on the shoulder.

"You work hard. Be back tomorrow, yes?"

"Uh, sure." She wouldn't take the money back, so he pocketed it and set off once more for the monastery nestled among the mountaintops. The sun was dipping close to the horizon, and his stomach reminded him that he hadn't eaten all day. The least he could do was meet Mae and buy them dinner.

He had half-expected to meet her coming down the mountain, as it was surely after her training had ended for the day, but he made it all the way up to the top gate, breathing hard and sweating, and she wasn't even waiting for him there. With more than a little hesitation, he entered the monastery to look for her.

Like every other structure in Pandaria, he was surrounded by breath-taking beauty. Tian Monastery was the biggest beginning monk training facility on the continent. Although Mae was far from a beginner, she was a foreigner, and so she started here with everyone else. He stood for a moment, swept away by the magnitude of the compound spread out before him. It was enormous. Setting his teeth, he picked a direction at random, and started that way. The path he choose led him past a cluster of secluded huts that he assumed were either living quarters or places for meditation. On the other side was a large roped off ring, and inside were two sparring monks that appeared to be teachers, or at least very advanced students. There was a group of younger students gathered around them cheering them on, but Mae was not among them.

Further down the path he walked, feeling more and more out of place. Finally he came upon a wide courtyard, somewhere near the center of the monastery. There were a group of students of all of the races of Azeroth grouped there, and finally he spotted a silver pony tail bouncing around in the middle of them. They appeared to be playing some sort of game that required stealing a ball and throwing it to each other, or something. There seemed to be lots of physical contact involved: most of the students were covered in mud. Kalibose stood to the side and thought he might never feel more out of place. This was a group of people from places all over the planet, and they had all come together and were now friends. He had one friend. Besides his family that he saw on holidays or the reagent shop owner that he sometimes worked for, he didn't really talk to anyone else more than a word or two at a time. He was pretty sure that he didn't even know how to talk to other people. He considered just turning around and walking back outside the monastery to wait for Mae, when she finally spotted him standing off in the sidelines. Her face lit up into a huge grin and she waved at him. That distraction however, was apparently what the other team needed. Another monk trainee, too fast for him to even see, slammed into Mae and threw her to the ground. Kalibose didn't even intend to, but suddenly he _blinked_ halfway across the field to reach her. He made himself slow down to a jog, however, when he heard the raucous laughter coming from the pile of players. Mae popped up, apparently uninjured, and shoved the other trainee to the ground, rubbing his face into the mud. Kalibose felt acutely the other trainees one by one turning to stare at him as they realized he was there among them. Mae continued to wrestle with the other trainee for a moment until she spotted him standing right outside their circle. She got up, and shoved him down once more, before jogging over to him. She was covered with mud and her hair was falling down, but she had such a happy, sunshine-filled look on her face that he momentarily forgot how awkward he felt in all these people.

"Kalibose!" She threw her arms around him, and he barely caught her in time. "Are you done already? What time is it?"

She looked directly overhead, as if she expected it to be only noontide. He tried to discreetly brush some of the mud she had smeared on him off. With the dust and cobwebs he had acquired from the books, he looked more like an undeclared vagabond than any kind of mage. He forced a smile onto his face.

"Supper time, I thought. But if you're not done yet, I can go ahead and let you catch up later."

"Nonsense." She scrubbed some of the mud out of her hair, flinging it everywhere. Some of the other trainees laughed as they dodged the droplets flying through the air. "I'm starving. Let's go eat now."

The trainee that had tackled Mae and then got soundly thrashed for it, jogged over to join them. He was, of all things, a blood elf.

"Your girl here," he said in slightly accented Common as he slung an arm around Mae's shoulders, "is about the toughest first year recruit I've ever seen."

Kalibose bristled with the familiarity that he treated Mae with. The blood elf held his hand out, and Kalibose shook it as stiffly as possible. "I'm Valeth. Proud to have my ass kicked by your girlfriend. Where you two eating at?"

Before he knew it, there was a group of trainees trudging down the mountain path together. Mae held his hand as they walked, but she frequently leaned away from him to laugh at a joke or to punch someone in the shoulder. By the time they arrived at Greenstone Village, he wanted to sink into the ground. They commandeered a large outside table, and as he and Mae walked up to the front to get drinks, Mae pulled him to a stop.

"Are you okay, Kalibose?" He avoided her eyes as he replied.

"Sure Mae, I'm not going to stop you from hanging out with your friends."

"Hey," she said softly. She let go of his hand to put both of her palms against his face. He had nowhere to look but her sincere eyes. "If you don't want to do this, we can leave."

He closed his eyes to avoid her gaze and swallowed hard. "I can do this. Let's go get our drinks."

The group of trainees that were seated at the table with them were as varied as possible in such a location. There was another night elf, male, who seemed to only tag along because there were other night elves there. He only spoke to Mae and sometimes Kalibose. There was a draenei girl with short curly hair and heavily accented speech. There was a human and a dwarf girl, and another blood elf boy, although he was short and androgynous enough that Kalibose had to sit there and watch before he could tell if he was male or female, and still he wasn't sure. And then there was Valeth. He was a second year recruit, or third year, or who even cared. He had perfectly tousled blonde hair and included every person at the table in conversation so seamlessly that Kalibose was positive he had some sort of cheat system, like index cards under the table with everyone's name and interests and personality types. Kalibose felt fidgety, and it took every ounce of his restraint to not play with magic right there in front of everyone. If he caught the table on fire, or froze the flower arrangement, or disintegrated a plate, he would surely get them kicked out. As Greenstone Village was still rebuilding from the sprite invasion several years ago, there weren't really any other places to eat either. As it often did now, the crystal on his staff tuned into his mood, and it hummed a little louder than usual in the crowded eating area. Kalibose was grateful for the extra noise, but soon he saw the draenei looking over at him curiously.

"That is interesting magic stick you have. Is crystal from Outland?"

 _No, it's a semi-sentient crystallized portion of what passes for your gods,_ he thought _._

"I'm not sure," he deflected. "It's just an amplifier."

"Oh, are you a mage?" The human, who had dark brown hair braided over her shoulder and a smattering of freckles on her nose, looked up from the card game she was playing with the dwarf. "I'm Alice, by the way. My sister is a mage. She was always trying to blow stuff up in her room before our father shipped her off to mage school."

"Includin' yer bed." The dwarf laid down a card decisively, winning the game. Alice looked resigned, as if this happened all the time. She gathered the cards up to shuffle them again.

"So are you frost or fire?"

Kalibose was saved from answering by Valeth returning at that moment with a tray of alcoholic drinks.

"Who's man enough to drink sake with me?"

Kalibose could not grab a tumbler of the liquor fast enough.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Notes: There is illness rampant in our house right now so I'm posting right now so I don't forget later. Illustration up on dA.**

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"You know," Mae commented as she helped him stumble to bed much later that night, "as incredibly entertaining as your interpretive dance to a funeral march and your dissertation on 'why family sucks' was, I don't think sake is really your thing."

"I couldn't agree more," he replied. At least that's what he thought he replied. It ended up sounding more like a miserable moan as he watched the floor pitch under him. There was a reason he had drunk so much tonight, although fuck if he could remember what it was. Mae caught him as he awkwardly tried to visit the floor for the fourth or fifth time that evening. Instead he made it onto the bed, flat on his back. He stared up at her with what had to be a winning smile on his face.

"Why y'so good t'me?"

Mae started to giggle as she carefully unclasped his cloak from around his neck. "You are so drunk."

"You c'n keep going y'know." He tried to run a hand through her disheveled silver hair, and ended up awkwardly petting her cheek. "You er so beau-ful."

Mae flushed furiously as she pulled his cloak away from him and hung it on the corner post of the bed. "I'm not sure what you're propositioning, Kalibose, but you are too drunk to walk, so I'm just going to say no on all accounts."

"Aw don' be tha' way." Surely he sounded more articulate than that? He pushed himself up and grabbed her hand before she could move away. "C'mere."

He managed to land a sloppy kiss on her cheek, and she giggled breathlessly as she gently pushed him back down on the bed. "Stop it, you gigantic dork. You know I'd love to kiss you, but not when your breath smells like a distillery."

He blinked, trying to make his brain interpret that correctly, but the room was spinning so lazily that it was starting to put him to sleep. "So kiss later?"

"Sleep now, kiss later." She pulled his boots off, and got his legs up on the bed. He didn't fight her anymore, and rolled over so that he could curl around the pillow. Sleep sounded amazing right now, actually. Except for one thing.

"Sleep w' me?" Mae had been sitting on her own bed and peeling the tape off her hands and feet, and she looked up at him with a look on her face that he couldn't hope to understand in this state.

"Alright, just a moment." Blackness crept around his vision as he heard her shuffle around the room, but he fought it until he felt her move the blankets aside and curl up against him. He wrapped his arms around her and buried his face into her hair. Forget the pillow, she was better than anything else in his bed. He ran his hands over the thin fabric of her sleep shirt, massaging the strong muscles of her back. She made a noise quietly against his chest, and he tried very hard to remain conscious as blackness drug him down, but despite his best efforts, his hands slowed and his breathing with it. The last thing he heard before he fell fast asleep was her mumble, "if only you weren't so drunk, Kal.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Notes: This chapter almost gets an M rating. Illustration up on deviantArt.**

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Mae had left for the monastery way before his body forced him awake around mid morning. He stumbled to the bathroom, only intending to take a piss, then ended up vomiting everything he had eaten or drunk the night before instead. It took him a good portion of the morning to get all that cleaned up, and then he fell back to bed and didn't move until she came back later that night. She had kissed him on the forehead, told him he smelled disgusting, and sent him off to bathe. It was only several days later that he even remembered a portion of what happened that night and he felt like he should be embarrassed of himself.

The other recruits didn't let him forget that night the entire time they were in Pandaria. Alice cheerfully yelled out, "Hey Song and Dance!" every time she saw him, which thankfully wasn't that often. He didn't walk Mae to the monastery in the morning anymore, although he usually met her at the gate in the evening. After getting a sound verbal barrage from the woman in charge of the mogu library for skipping a day, she put him back to work cataloging. It was interesting work, and the time passed quickly. Mae came home much more exhausted than the first day, and sometimes they skipped dinner entirely to eat something quickly in their room and go to sleep. Most nights, she curled up against him, although they were both too tired to do much more than tell each other good night.

The end of the second week, however, he came back to the inn from the library early, hauling an armful of scrolls. They were copies of originals that were already cataloged in the library, and Ana Lin, as he finally learned the woman's name, had given them to him as payment for his day's work. He was ecstatic to have them, and more than that, to have a chunk of time to sit here uninterrupted and study them. He had just set up a work space, with ink and quills and the nightstand cleaned off to use as a desk, when he heard a racket in the bottom level of the inn. Curious, he listened as whoever it was ran across the lobby, up two flights of stairs, and he just barely had time to realize it was coming for his door when it burst open. The gust of wind knocked all his scrolls on the floor and he made a mad grab for them, cursing the entire way. He stacked them messily on top of the nightstand.

"Mae, what the fuck-" and then he stopped and really looked at her. Streaks of dark purple ran down from her hair, all over her face, and down an entire half of her tunic before fading out into nothing halfway down her leg. Twin pale streaks ran down from her eyes and she looked furious.

"What-" he started, unable to even finish his question. Mae sniffed angrily.

"Valeth," she spat out. "We were balancing with inkwells on our heads, and he was pissed that I was doing better than him, and he threw rocks at me until I fell. I'm going to _kill_ him."

Kalibose was angry enough to burst into fire. " _I'm_ going to fucking kill him. Where is he?"

She seemed to rethink her statement, but the anger did not leave her face. "I'm not going to tell you, but only because I want to finish my training course. When we're done, you can do what you want."

She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "I'm going to draw up a bath, I guess. I have no idea what to do with my clothes."

"I'll get another tub from the innkeeper. We'll soak them and see if we can't save them."

He shut the door behind him so she could change, and swept down the stairs. He got a smaller washing tub from the cook, and by the time he hauled it up two flights of stairs, his anger had simmered down. He hadn't really been fond of the blond blood elf before, but now he was firmly on his hate list. He was completely locked in his own head and didn't even think as he maneuvered the tub into the room and threw open the bathroom door. Mae was still in the middle of filling her bath, and she let out a shrill noise as she clutched her ink-stained tunic back to her bare chest.

"Ah, _shit_ Mae, I'm sorry.." he stumbled backward, trying to close the door, but the tub was in the way. He tried to move it, determinedly keeping his eyes to the floor. The water stopped, and he didn't know his ears could get any darker in embarrassment, but he was sure they did as he heard a rustle of clothing.

"Wait, Kalibose, just, don't look until I get in the bath, and then you can put my clothes in the tub. Okay?"

He swallowed, pretending the bare floor was the only thing that existed in the room. "Sure Mae, just tell me when."

He froze, halfway in the bathroom and half out, until he heard more clothing hit the ground, and the splash of water as she got in the bathing tub. Even after she told him okay, he still kept his eyes firmly to the ground as he gathered up her clothes (and _holy shit_ , her undergarments) and dumped them all into the smaller washtub. He filled it with water and soap, the bubbles colored slightly lavender as the ink soaked into the water, and not knowing what to do with it afterward, drug it over next to the tub. Only when he was done, and he was positioned so that he hoped he would not be able to see into the water at all, did he lift his eyes. She had submerged until only her head and arms were above the water, and either way, the entire bath was filled with bubbles. She was scrubbing at her face furiously, and he couldn't be sure, but it looked like she was still crying. His heart warred with his mind: give her privacy, because she was _naked, for fuck's sake_ , or stay a safe distance away and at least talk to her. He cleared his throat, and started to sit cross-legged beside her head, then looked down at his robes. They might not look like much, but they were enchanted and enhanced with spellthread, and would be very expensive to replace. He shrugged, trying to feel more nonchalant than he was, and pulled them off over his head and tossed them back into the bedroom. He sat down beside her in only his loose pants, and picked up a bottle of soap from the floor. Mae glanced at him out of one eye, and only saw his bare torso. She raised her eyebrows before peeking out of the bathtub and saw he was still at least partially clothed. She sniffed and pushed her wet hair out of her face.

"Why did you take your robes off? I don't think there's enough room in here for both of us."

He completely choked on what he was about to say, and had to spend a few minutes gasping for air before he could speak.

"Thank you Mae, for making this even more awkward than it already is." That at least got a half-smile out of her. "Hand me the cup, and I'll wash the ink out of your hair."

It was simultaneously clinical, he thought as he scrubbed soap through her silver hair until it was no longer purple, and strangely intimate, to wash someone's hair, especially with the purpose of getting something out of it. There was no doubt she enjoyed it, as she stilled everything else she had been doing and just lay there with her head tipped back as he worked his fingernails against her scalp. But he also took the time to make sure it was clean and untangled, and that took away from the experience, in his opinion, at least on his end.

"Not that I want you to stop, because please don't," Mae's voice was languid from the bathtub and he almost started laughing, it was so different that usual, "but why are you in here instead of reading your magic scrolls? I can wash my own hair, although I think I don't ever want to again after this."

"Because you were upset." He was glad that she was turned away from him, because it was easier to talk to her like this without having to see her face. "Because I don't usually get to take care of you, and Elune above knows that you pick up after me all the damned time."

He reluctantly pulled his hands away from her hair and dried them off on a towel. "Now dunk your head, I think its clean now."

She obliged, rinsing her hair out completely, and then rolled over so that her chin rested on the edge of the tub and she could regard him with serious eyes.

"I'm sorry for this, by the way. I know it's just hair, and ink, but the entire thing was just so juvenile, I overreacted."

He gently tousled her wet hair, before trying to shape it into a triangle above her head. "I'm not sorry."

She smiled as she shook her hair loose around her face. It was different than usual: usually her smile was so bright, so brilliant, that it could light up every dark corner. This was muted somehow: now it was softer, and more beautiful than anything he'd ever seen before. He vowed silently that he would do anything in his power to see this shade of her smile as often as possible. He scooted forward until he could reach her easily, and kissed her. She returned the kiss, slowly, and when they broke apart her cheeks were flushed prettily.

"Would you check my back? For ink?" The way she whispered the question implied anything but innocence and he nodded, unsure what else he should do. She turned around and sat up so that almost her entire torso was out of the water. She had one arm pressed across her breasts, but she was essentially, not wearing a stitch. With a dry mouth he picked up the washcloth from the floor and stood up on his knees to reach her better.

"You've got most of it, but..there could be some up here." He gently ran the washcloth across her upper back, not at all hard enough to remove any ink, if there were any there. His hands seemed to belong to a different person entirely as he smoothed them over her bare back. He couldn't see any ink, not technically...but he should check thoroughly. Her back was strong, but her skin was so soft, and with his hands on her shoulders, he pressed a kiss in the middle of her shoulder blades. He heard her take in a breath, but also, to his immense consternation, he also heard a sharp rap on the door from the outside. He sighed, leaning his forehead against her bare back as she began to laugh breathlessly. He started to make a comment about rotten timing, when a muffled voice followed the knocking.

"Mae? It's Valeth, I'm sorry, I came down here to apologize."

Kalibose stood abruptly. Mae whispered from behind him as she searched for the towel on the floor.

"Don't kill him, Kalibose. Kalibose!"

He strode into the bedroom with righteous purpose. He might not be broad in the shoulder like his oldest brother, nor could he intimidate with a single look like his middle brother, but he still had his height, and when he flung the door open in the blood elf's face, he had conjured a fireball the size of his head. Valeth's mouth gaped open as he stared first at the murderous wrath on Kalibose's face and then to the living flame being held in his open palm.

"Uh, hey man, uh, s-s-sorry about..."

"Get. Out."

The blood elf did not hesitate, but turned tail and ran as if Kalibose were going to set him on fire, which had definitely been a possibility. He glowered down the hall long after he left, trying to convince himself to not run after him, and he almost waited too long to put the fire out. He brought his hands together to extinguish it and cringed. His palm was red and sore, but it didn't look blistered at least. By this time Mae appeared behind him, wearing her nightshirt and toweling her hair off.

"I'm afraid to ask what you did to him."

"I didn't do anything." He shook his singed hand as he closed the door and locked it. "He just realized it was smarter for him to be someplace else."

She gave him a look as she finished drying her hair. "Sometimes I'm not sure whether to believe you or not."

"Use your secret inner eye then." He tapped his forehead as he spoke, then he strode to the bureau to find a shirt of some sort. Her voice came from behind him, the epitome of sarcasm.

"My "inner eye" says that you would have set him on fire if you thought you had the chance."

He pulled an old shirt on over his head.

"Well it's still working fine, then."

She threw her wet towel at his face.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Notes: There is an absolutely filthy NSFW pic up on my dA. Also a wardrobe sketch for Kalibose.**

* * *

Mae spent every night curled up in bed with him now. Her bed in fact, hadn't been used in so long that he appropriated it for his scrolls and spellwork. This should have made him unspeakably happy, but unfortunately, after the inkwell incident, sleeping next to her was starting to be a problem. They wouldn't even start off touching, but then she would scoot closer, and he'd wrap an arm around her, and he might run his hand along her back as they talked quietly, and then he would remember how she looked in the bathwater, how her back curved smoothly down into the water, which had not been that covered with bubbles anymore, and he'd have to excuse himself from the bed until he was able to get himself together again. Sometimes she would fall asleep before he came back, sometimes she would pester him, but he _thought_ he covered well. It was frustrating, to say the least.

Two weeks before the end of her training session however, she cornered him at supper time. He had been working slowly through a book of mogu runes alongside a translation guide all day, and it was tedious work, but at least it kept his mind off other things, for once. He ended up taking it with them to eat dinner, and as they worked through a plate of egg rolls, he mostly tuned Mae out as she regaled him with the events of her day. Valeth had been forgiven, or at least he was on his best behaviour. He was mysteriously absent on the days he met Mae at the gates to walk her to town. Alice and the dwarf girl, Bryn, however, had stopped calling him "Song and Dance" and now referred to him as "Fireball", and he found he didn't mind so much when they tagged along for dinner. Sometimes the other blood elf, who he still wasn't sure was male or female, joined them, although he was conspicuously quiet. Tonight though, it was just the two of them. He was really having trouble with the translation of these runes, and he was contemplating how he'd be able to smuggle a copy of the book home for his sister-in-law to take a look at, when he realized that Mae had stopped talking awhile ago and was looking at him with an eyebrow raised. She had also taken the rest of the plate of egg rolls away, and he wrinkled his brow and made a grab for them. She pulled them back further.

"Share, Mae, we only have a couple weeks left to eat these."

She picked out the smallest one and handed it to him. He dove into it anyway, not wanting to waste such good food. He would really miss eating like this.

"What?" he asked her, with his mouth still full of food.

"It doesn't take a gift of prophecy to realize you've got something on your mind, Kalibose."

He nearly choked on the egg roll, and grabbed for his tea. He downed half of it in one gulp, grateful that he had not tried to stuff the entire egg roll in his mouth at once. "I've just been distracted is all. The history of this place is really interesting."

Mae's face showed just how much she believed his explanation. "So interesting that you leap out of bed cursing in the middle of the night?"

"Uh, maybe?" He honestly didn't have anything else to say after that, except to shut his book and feel his ears turn red, unable to do anything about it. Mae took a sip of her tea, cool as a cucumber, and several hundred times as devious.

"All I'm saying, is you must be really interested in mogu history. In fact, one could say that you are passionate about it. Aroused by it, even."

"Mae!" He immediately covered his mouth, as if he could take back his loud outburst. He leaned closer to her infuriatingly smug face and dropped his voice to a whisper. "For fuck's sake, will you knock it off? We are in public."

Mae picked the biggest egg roll out of the pile she was hoarding and put it on her plate. "Hey, it's not my fault you have a hard-on for mogu history."

He made a strangled noise of consternation, and shoved his chair back from the table. Hurriedly stacking his books, and grabbing the two remaining egg rolls just for spite, he stomped away from the tavern and back to the inn.


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Notes: I like this chapter. This is the one that makes me want to branch out and write Tales from the Tian Monastery. There are two different illustrations up on my dA for this one, although you'll probably have to search for the second.**

* * *

He refused to speak to her when she came to bed that night, and when she apologized he pulled the pillow over his head. He wasn't really that mad, though, and he was waiting outside the gates of the monastery that evening. She smiled at him as he stuck a lotus blossom he had found on the path in her hair, and all was right with the world again. The rest of their crew of trainees joined them for dinner that night, and Mae only joked about "mogu history" once or twice before she caught his warning look. Alice and Bryn took it upon themselves to teach the rest of the group how to play their card game, which Kalibose found himself surprisingly good at. There were drinks passed around, although he stayed far away from the sake. Some of the other trainees eventually made their way down from the monastery, until they had taken over the entire east wing of the tavern. He had spotted Valeth among them, but he kept to a different table after he caught Kalibose glaring at him. After two glasses of wine and more than enough company, he bowed out of the card game and pulled his chair back from the table. Mae was sprawled sleepily on his lap, having had much more to drink than he had. She was pointing out each of her fellow students to him, and he made at least a cursory attempt to remember them.

"That's Kiernen, he's the night elf that joined us the first night. He's pretty nice, now that he's come out of his shell." Kalibose looked in the direction she pointed, and saw the night elf in question did in fact look more relaxed, and was leaning back in his chair with his arm around the draenei that had inquired about the Eye of Argus. "I think he and Vaana are dating now, although who knows, everyone is kind of lax about that sort of thing at the monastery."

"Speaking of which," she sat up straighter so that she could speak quieter into his ear, "did you know that Alice and Bryn are-" She made an obscene gesture with her hands, and Kalibose was glad he had already finished his glass of wine, or else he would have choked on it.

"Really? They are together?" He leaned around her to study them. They sat close together, but he never would have guessed that in a thousand years. Although, he couldn't recall ever seeing them apart.

Mae nodded sagely and nearly lost her balance. "Apparently Kite happened upon them in the zen garden one day. They have now been banned from said garden. Master Yu was so angry he said he tore his fur out, but he tends to exaggerate."

"Kite?"

He frowned in confusion, but Mae poked him in the chest. "You know Kite. He comes with us to dinner sometimes."

Kalibose leaned around the other way and spotted the blood elf in question deep in the card game still with Alice and Bryn. He studied his (her? their, he decided on) face for a moment. Their hair was cut in a short, spikey fashion that was completely ambiguous, there were hoop earrings all along both ears, and if nothing else, their face was clean-shaven. But as a blood elf, that could be genetics or a gender indicator. Their eyebrows looked masculine. The curve of their lip looked feminine. Finally Kalibose turned to Mae and asked.

"Is Kite a girl or a boy?"

"Um, both? Neither? I asked the first week, and he said it didn't matter, he could go by either. I always call him "he" because that's what Valeth calls him. I think they might be cousins." She frowned in thought as she leaned forward to grab her half-empty drink from the table. "I don't think Valeth is very accepting of him though. They don't talk at all outside of class."

She downed the rest of her beer and Kalibose jumped as she spilled some on him. "Not to be a hypocrite, but haven't you had enough?"

"Pfffft." She waved a hand in front of his face. "I am no lightweight, Kalibose Woodstalker, lover of mogu history." She laughed so hard at her own joke she slid sideways off his lap and he caught her, barely, before she fell on the floor.

"I think it's time for your own chair then." He pulled one over right next to him and she sat down on it, well mostly. She leaned the entire upper half of her body across his lap and although he didn't think she'd go far from him, he made a mental note to keep an eye on her. He wasn't fooled at all-if she didn't stop now, she wouldn't be able to walk back to their room. He laid a hand on top of her head as he tried to think of a diplomatic way to get her to retire for the night.

"Kite has a crush on you, you know."

He snorted, then realized she wasn't joking. "Wait, what?"

She pointed at Kite. The blood elf in question glanced up, and Mae, of course, waved at him enthusiastically. Kalibose resisted the urge to facepalm. "Yeah, he told me he liked the tall, brooding type. I told him I'd kick his ass if he made a move on you though."

"I, uh, don't think you have anything to worry about."

The thought that anyone would find him attractive at all, besides Mae

( _especially Mae_ )

was comical, but he took a half a second to peek around her and look at Kite. He never smiled, and in fact, he didn't think he'd ever heard him talk, either. Definitely nothing like Mae.

"What, only into girls? That is so _limiting,_ Kalibose Woodstalker."

Mae seemed to forget she was supposed to be sitting in her own chair, and climbed into his lap so that her legs were on either side of him and she hooked her hands around his neck. Her eyes bore lazily into him and it suddenly felt way too hot in here for them. He cleared his throat before he could answer.

"I can't decide whether I should get you drunk more often, or never again. And just one girl, actually."

She giggled and leaned closer until her forehead rested against his. "Good save. No masculinity crisis for you."

Something that she said earlier stuck in his mind, and did nothing to relieve the tension between them.

"Tell me what you said before."

"What, that Kite had a crush on you? I thought you were fully denying any attraction there."

"No," and he swallowed hard, feeling something warm and terrifying bubbling up inside of him. He settled his hands on her hips and looked her straight in the eye. "The part where you said you'd fight someone for me."

Mae bit her lip and somehow, managed to look even more mischievous than before. "Is this a _mogu history_ thing?"

He pulled her closer until she was pressed against him as tightly as possible with their clothes still in the way and the evidence of how he felt was obvious. "Yes."

She took in a startled breath and her eyes grew wide. She brought her hands up and put them on either side of Kalibose's face, and they were like electricity against his skin.

"I would fight anyone for you. I would take on Deathwing himself if he got in my way."

Her eyes glowed subtly brighter for a moment, and if he were not inches from her, he would have missed the momentary look of confusion that flickered over her visage. She laughed quietly, deep in her throat, and he was relieved. Whatever she had seen made her happy. Her eyes focused again on his, and she scooted closer against him, making him take in a sharp breath.

"You are the most important person to me on Azeroth, and I will not let anyone take that away from me."

He wanted to answer her. He wanted to tell her that she was more important than anything he had ever encountered in his life, more important than the very breath he took. His eyes burned with the emotions that he was only beginning to understand, and he closed his eyes, swaying in the wake of the delicious ache that would fill up this entire continent, if it were tangible. He kissed her softly, trembling, not caring that they were sitting surrounded by strangers and friends, only existing in the space that they created around them. She leaned back from him, and her eyebrows turned up in concern as she brushed tears off of his cheeks.

"Kal?" she whispered, and it was only then that he realized he would have no hope of speaking at all, his throat was completely choked with tears. "Are you-are you okay?"

He could only nod and breathe ragged breaths and gently pepper her face with kisses. What had started as something carnal between them was now so emotional that he didn't even think he could get back to where they were at before. Mae looked more worried than drunk now, and tentatively asked if he wanted to go back to their room. He nodded, and throwing down too much money for their meal and drinks, they left, ignoring the looks and calls of the trainees around them. He reached for her as soon as the door to their room closed behind him, and he took her right to what now felt like their bed. He unbuttoned his robe as he went, and threw it to the ground beside the bed. Her eyes grew wide, and she started to lift her tunic up over her head, but he stopped her.

"Not yet," he said, his voice husky and quiet. "Just let me hold you tonight."

"Okay. I'll be right back then."

He sat down on the bed in only his loose pants, and presently she joined him in her nightshirt. He took her into his arms, buried his face in her hair, and again felt tears run down his cheeks as she whispered softly to him.

He did not leave the bed in a rush that night.


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Notes: Posting a bit early because it's 3pm the day before Halloween and I still have a TON of work to do. Have a good holiday! Pic up on dA.**

* * *

The next two weeks passed as if in a dream, if a dream was a rushing river that carried you along whether you were ready or not. Mae came home from training late and absolutely exhausted every every evening. Some nights she stripped off her sweaty clothes and fell right into bed, and some nights she sat in a hot bath, soaking her bruises and blisters. He had found her asleep in there once, and it took some convincing to get her to leave the water before she drowned. Kalibose, to his aggravation, had less to do than ever: he and Ana Lin had almost completed the categorization of the mogu archive and he barely spent half a day there anymore. He spent most of this time copying spells to take back to Stormwind with him, and the rest of the time anticipating when Mae would get back.

The sexual tension that had been building between them the entire trip was still there, but it didn't seem as important anymore. Kalibose still felt like he was floundering at sea with all these emotions, but he felt the depth between them was more profound. What he had been craving was only a pond, and now he had the ocean. Some nights it was still difficult to navigate around it, but Mae was so worn out from her final testing week and frankly, there was something terrifying about crossing that final step of intimacy that yawned before them. And so they hovered, somewhere in between, skin against skin and heart against heart, his fingers memorizing the musculature of her back, the curve of her hip. How much different it would it be just to take that extra step? Everything was so perfect now, he was almost scared to find out.

The first day of the week of her final ceremony, he trudged up the mountain at dawn to Tian Monastery. She had spent the night there, as well as every other recruit. The final tournament didn't start until an hour after sunup, but he was unable to sleep without her anyway, so he went up as early as he could justify and got a seat in the front row. When it started, all the recruits came out at once, and went through their morning stretches together. Every face was deadpan and focused, but Kalibose was very observant, and he caught her wink as a move brought her to face his direction. It was a grueling tournament that lasted all day, but he had the immense pleasure to witness Mae soundly beat out every single one of her opponents, from the first years to the third years, to win the Tian Monastery Spring Championship. He stood off to the side, waiting for her friends to congratulate her first, but she pushed them aside and ran right for him, and he barely caught her as she leapt into his arms.

The final graduating ceremony at the end of the week was almost anticlimactic to the tournament. It was thankfully short; everything official had already been taken care of during the week and this was a time for celebration. Mae took the time to hug every single one of her classmates good bye, and a fair few of them shook hands with Kalibose as well, even Kite, who he still hadn't heard speak, although he did see a ghost of a smile. Valeth shook his hand, and Kalibose barely felt any animosity for him any more. The blood elf would be returning home alone, and Mae was here with him. He might have been a bit aggressive with his good mood because Valeth gave him an odd look and stepped away without saying anything. Alice and Bryn apparently both hailed from Ironforge, and promises were made to visit. There was a whirlwind of conversation and addresses passed back and forth, and then the crowd began to dissipate around them. Mae took his hand, and they slowly headed back down the winding path to the base of the mountain for the last time.

"Well, we have two and a half days before we have to be at the port. What could we possibly fill our time with?"

Kalibose caught her glance out of the corner of her eye, and knew she was thinking the same thing that he was.

"Eggrolls?"

"Eggrolls."

They took off at a run to get a good seat before the restaurant filled up for lunch.


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Notes: Running a liiiiittle bit late on this chapter but not bad. Illustration up on dA. This chapter is a little NSFW.**

* * *

"I've, ah, never done this before, so you have to tell me if I'm doing something wrong."

Kalibose whispered this, his cheek pressed against hers and his eyes closed for good measure. He thought, if he looked her in the eye right now, he would lose his nerve completely. She shifted against him just enough to be able to speak to him more clearly, and just that much friction elicited a groan from deep in his throat. They had gone to bed the normal way, with him in pants and her in her nightshirt, but sometime in the middle of the night, they had reached for each other, and mutually shed their boundaries until there was nothing but each other, and he was not going to back out now. Mae's voice was breathy and low, and he thought it was the most attractive thing he had ever heard.

"Try not to worry about it, okay? I mean, there isn't a rule book or anything. And," here she paused briefly, and her voice was so quiet he opened his eyes to see her bite her lip in embarrassment, "I don't really have a frame of reference either."

"That doesn't really make me feel better." Her lip bite was driving him wild. He kissed her bottom lip, and forgot about his nervousness. She kept talking, her voice getting higher and higher as he continued down her jawline to her neck and then her collarbone.

"I mean, that's the whole point of sex right, to feel good, and not everyone wants the same thing, and its silly to think that there are these standards to maintain or this set of rules on whether you're good at it or not. I think I'm just talking too much any—ah!"

She was distracted, and he had reached the delicate skin underneath her arm, and she jumped as he drug his teeth across it.

"We are not going to start tickling."

"We are not going to start what?"

He tried to do it again, but he was already laughing, and she was prepared, and they wrestled together, a mixture of tickling and teeth and heated kisses in between. There was not much more talk after that. It was not a flawless event: it was messy. It was uncoordinated. There were mistakes made and there ended up being more hushed laughter than muffled moans. But in the end she nestled up against him, skin to skin and content and drowsy, and he thought that it couldn't have been more perfect. He was so comfortable he was nearly asleep when he felt her stir beside him.

"Hey Kal?"

"Hm?"

When she didn't continue, he reluctantly opened his eyes and pulled back enough to see her face. Her hair was wild, a sweaty silver cloud that clung not only to her head but also his shoulder and arm. He pushed it back behind her slender ears. Mae brought one hand up and smoothed it along his face and he leaned into it.

"I love you." He froze, unsure at first if he had heard her correctly. She was completely awake and her face was very earnest as she gently kissed him. "I wanted you to know that, outside of what we just did. I love you."

He couldn't say it while her eyes bore into his soul, but he pulled her close enough that he could whisper into her hair.

"I love you too, Mae, more than anything."

* * *

 **One more chapter after this.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Notes: This is just a happy little epilogue to a happy little story that I hope you enjoyed as much as I enjoyed writing it. Illustration up on dA.**

* * *

Mae skipped ahead down the path to his brother's house. They had just gotten off the ship from Pandaria that morning, and Kalibose still felt more than a little queasy. He leaned against his staff as he walked, and not for the first time, wondered why he hadn't just bitten the bullet and taken a six-month course in portals.

 _Because you are more concerned with learning spells of power than of practical._

"Where have you been while we were in Pandaria? You haven't said a word in weeks."

If a noncorporeal being that was only able to interact in the material plane through a crystal was able to shrug, K'vaat would have shrugged.

 _You were happy. I was not needed._

Kalibose pulled up short right before reaching the threshold of his brother's house. Mae had already been assaulted by his nieces, ten year old Genne and fourteen year old Brekke, who was now taller than the monk. Genne was pulling Mae into the house bodily by one arm, and Elforen nodded at him from the doorway. Kalibose waved him off for a moment as he consulted with the naaru.

"Wait a minute. Do you watch _everything_ that I do?"

Kalibose heard the tinkling of chimes that he associated with being a drawn out sigh. _Your personal life is not that interesting to me, Kalibose. I have witnessed the procreation habits of species across every plane of existence, and the night elf race is far from exotic. I am not a voyeur._

Kalibose made a mental note to next time lock his staff up in the closet before going to bed with Mae, even if it didn't actually help.

"That's still really fucking creepy."

He stepped inside his brother's house just in time to see Mae give his nieces their presents: beautiful painted hair clips in the shape of lotus flowers. They shrieked with glee and ran to their prospective rooms to put them in.

His brother reached up on a peg beside the door and pulled down their apartment keys. "Everything's in order, I didn't let Lorel throw any parties there, although she threatened to. How was Pandaria?"

"Disgustingly pretty." Kalibose pocketed the keys and groaned inwardly. They'd have to go get food before going home, and right now all wanted to do was sleep for days in his own bed. "Where is Lorel, anyway? I half-expected to be attacked on the way here for presents."

"Who knows with her." Elforen crossed his arms and leaned against the door frame. "So what did you get up to while Mae was in training?"

"Organizing and translating mogu texts, for the most part. I have something for Zara, actually." He dug into his satchel to find the translation guide he had secured for her, and Mae piped up from across the room.

"Kalibose kept himself very busy, actually." He could near the snark in her voice from here, and in panic he glanced up just in time to see Mae grin at him mischievously.

"Kalibose discovered he had a certain _passion_ for mogu history."

* * *

 **End Note: With the end of this story we will have a brief hiatus, then we will be back Tuesday, December 1st with the Second Annual Winter Veil Special to see what the entire extended SilverLeaf family has been doing as they get together for the holiday. WV2 will run for five weeks, and my plan right now is to have an illustration for each chapter as well. Thank you again for reading, and see you soon!**


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